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Farmington school board members discuss district safety

By Joshua Kellogg jkellogg@daily-times.com

Updated:
01/10/2013 09:57:47 PM MST

FARMINGTON — In the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school shootings, Farmington school-board members and administration officials Thursday evening discussed safety procedures related to district-wide lockdowns that occurred in December.

Assistant Superintendent of Campus Programs Frank Stimac spoke at the beginning of the meeting about the Dec. 21 events, which led to lock downs at six district schools at various points in the day.

Mesa Verde and North East elementaries, Heights and Hermosa middle schools and Piedra Vista High School were placed into lockdowns based upon three different possible threats. McCormick Elementary also was placed on lockdown, but that was part of a drill.

"It started early when a young man came into Mesa Verde and reported to his teacher that a friend had called him and told him there was going to be a shooting at the school that day," Stimac said. "So the principal decided to go into a lockdown, not a full lockdown."

Heights was put on lockdown as a precaution given its proximity to Mesa Verde.

Stimac said once the district substantiated there was nothing to the rumor, the district quickly ended the lockdown.

While Stimac was at Piedra Vista, a report was broadcast about two males on Sullivan Street headed towards Hermosa with guns.

"They went immediately into lockdown," Stimac said. "For me, that's as legitimate as they get."

North East Elementary was locked down as a precaution at the same time.

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Stimac said the two males identified were en route to a friends home to play with their Airsoft pellet pistols.

"They never went to Hermosa's campus and never intended to," Stimac said. "Someone just saw them on Sullivan."

The last incident of the day was at Piedra Vista around 1:45 p.m., where a number of students in clown outfits were trying to get into a counselor's office, which was locked.

Stimac said the students frightened a school official and after the students ran off, a lockdown was put in place for the approximately 12 to 15 students. The school was using the Friday before winter break as a makeup day for finals testing. Most of the school faculty was in a meeting in the library at the time.

The fear was the students dressed up in clown outfits were related to a gang in town, Stimac said.

It was 12:30 p.m. when Stimac has a conversation with Farmington Police Chief Kyle Westall.

Westall said the department was going to put a uniformed police officer at every school in the district as a precaution. Aztec and Bloomfield police departments stationed officers at their respective schools with support from San Juan County Sheriff's Office deputies.